Come on, someone other than me and T.S. must be able to post images here.

Hula, Copyright 2001 Jeff Spirer

This is from a new project I am considering about hula culture in the mainland US. Not sure what to do with it yet..

Anyway, this is natural light although I had brought my own lighting. She was almost two hours late so I didn't have any time to set up the lights. Usually I do my own "digital darkroom" but a friend worked this one over.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), August 14, 2001

Answers

Jeff,

What is Hula culture? Are they Local kine or Hawaiian natives on the mainland in organizations, or is there some kind of multi-ethnic, volunteer sort of thing that happens based simply on interest?

-- Edward Kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), August 16, 2001.

Facinating! Tell us more, please, abotu this....

I assume you mean hula as in "sensual, mimetic Hawaiian dance, perfomed sitting or standing, with undulating gestures to instruments and chants"? (The dictionaries never does dances any justice...) Hula page at soc.hawaii.edu. "O ka hula, he mea i ho'omana'o ai ia 'oe aia ke aloha a ka u'i i loko ou."

Anyhow, back to the image. What is that backdrop? A mural painting? I can't really decide if it works, but I guess it does....

The girl is lovely and the exposure is wonderful and your friend did a good job. I find, however, that the moving hair distracts from the girl -- she looses form or shape because her left side disappears into a mass of moving hair.

But the image is intriguing and makes me want to see more. It certainly graps my attention. Do you have any more from the series?

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), August 18, 2001.

This is cool because it makes me forget she's standing next to a mural and triggers my imagination to see that she's actually standing next to a lonely highway hitch hiking, waiting for a car to come through the tunnel.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), August 31, 2001.